Pros: Nice Long drives. You can really make use out of all the various discs.
Full 18 holes. Has baskets and cement tees. Scenic course with less pedistrians.

Cons: A few vandalized holes, along with empty 40 oz cans and bottles in the baskets. Crowded course, you often have to wait to play. There are a few water holes on the back nine which make it tricky to play. Also on the holes with water there usually are people in the water trying to find their disc. You either have to wait or go around to the next hole.

Other Thoughts: You probably could make a killing by getting some waders and retrieve those lost disc on the water holes. My fiance and I often skip the water holes because golf disc are not cheap.

Pros: Great Park! All the tee's are cement now! The first few holes are nice and open and is perfect for long drives!

Cons: A few holes are water holes, which i am not a fan of. Skip holes 13,14,15,16 on windy days to save urself some money ;) Some non-disc golfers that you need to watch out for somtimes, but its not a big deal really.

Other Thoughts: Play this park 4-5 times a week, and love it! Also an old pole course there, some of the poles and tee sighns are missing but, overall its fun to play with some friends!

A great place to bring beginners, especially on the front nine. Experienced players can score well below the course par.

Water hazards require risk-reward assessment and good throw selection.

Holes are fun and satisfying.

Open front nine (I'm thinking 3-5 especially.) are a good place to try out new throws and discs.

Cons: Water hazards. Unless you're very conservative with your throws, you're likely to lose a disc at some point.

Goose poop on 12-16. Bring a towel.

If it has rained in the past few days (and in GR it most likely has), some holes will be downright unplayable, especially 15, 16.

Other Thoughts: My go-to course in GR. Always worth playing. Have always found a friendly crowd while playing there. Don't bother to play in the spring unless it has been uncommonly dry or you don't mind skipping holes in the back nine.

Pros: Love the concrete tee pads and baskets. Course is quite open, but there are some tree challenges here and there. The water holes can be frightening when the wind is against you.

Cons: Not many negatives I can say about this course, other than once you play 16 it's not easy to find where 17 and 18 are. These holes have been moved more than once, and you run into the wooden sign for the old (late 70s or early 80s) pole course that works its way to the south in the park.

Other Thoughts: 13 is at the end of a point of land jutting out into the lagoon. High water in the spring makes this even more challenging. I played the course on May 31, 2009 and we skipped 13, the water was within 10 feet of the base of the basket.

Pros: Probably the best course in the Grand Rapids area. Very challenging water. Nice wide open frost 9. Very nice park. worth the drive downtown in the summer. Don't be scared to jump in after your discs, it's pretty clean, comparably.

Cons: Can flood easily, as it is directly on the banks of the grand river. Due to damaged/ broken signs, it can be a little difficult to traverse.

Pros: This course will have you walking a great amount. Very beautiful looking scenery in a very wonderfully clean park. Holes are long at times, and not too technical. Played on a Sat., at 8 a.m.. Lots of very nice people in the park at this time. I would recommend playing this course.

Cons: Lots of water in the Spring aparently. My god, this park was flooded when I played. Lost a disc in the river. Decent signage, but not the best. An announcement at the park that was posted claimed that the leagues were cancelled, and moved to "Brewer", but no other info. was posted. Was I supposed to go back to my hotel and find out where the hell "Brewer" was?

Other Thoughts: While on vacation, I found this to be minutes from my hotel, so I decided to play. Park by the baseball diamond, and continue to walk South for a while until you find the 1st tee pad. I had to skip about 4 holes due to the flooding, and then it started raining pretty good as well, so in fairness, I had to skip the last 4 holes or so, too.

Pros: great set up, with a variety of easy birdies to some that you hope to get a par on. testing water holes on back nine. nice grass and mostly open.

Cons: no cement pads in back nine.

Other Thoughts: sometimes people don't understand that it is a disc golf course and think it is ok to have picnics in the middle of the fairway. there is a guy who gets all the discs out of the water and sells them for cheap. sometimes he has some really nice disc.

Pros: - Port-a-potty in parking lot, drinking fountain on the back nine.
- Lots of risk/reward water holes on the back nine that offer a challenge not found on most other GR courses.
- Goose poop point (hole #15) is a rewarding hole that will test your mettle.
- Just a pretty course and a great location in general.

Cons: - Quite a few missing/vandalized/inaccurate signs.
- Front nine is mostly wide open. Drive, approach, and putt... if it isn't windy, there's simply not much challenge involved.
- No elevation changes at all.
- The normal drawbacks of playing at a popular all-purpose park.
- Flooding and overcrowding are a big problem.

Other Thoughts: Riverside Park, as the name implies, sits on the banks of the Grand River. It's a pretty park, but the river makes the course quite unpredictable. I'll break down the conditions into four categories:

1. Winter = Snow. And lots of it. This may or may not make the course unplayable, depending on how hardcore you are.

2. More than half of the holes are completely underwater about 25% of the time. Ice jams and frequent spring rain are to blame. The basket at hole #1 usually shows the high-water mark for the season.

3. Another 25% of the time the water level will have diminished enough to make only some combination of 13, 14, 15, and 16 unplayable. Hole 15 is usually the first hole to go underwater and the last to dry out. The pole course nearby (Riverside South) is often helpful in these cases since you can make up missed holes there.

4. 25% of the time, the weather will be perfect and the ground will be dry. Everyone knows when these times are, and this is when everybody is at Riverside Park. You'll have groups of 7 players, 4 disc throwing toddlers, and 3 dogs clogging up holes for hours at a time. Runners, joggers, walkers, and bikers create constant traffic on the path that winds through the course. High school cross country teams practice on the front nine. Medieval reenactors (both the geeky high school types and the 35 year old men whose costumes are waaay too elaborate) often conduct battles around hole 13 and 14. You'll frequently have people fishing in the fairways of holes 15 and 16. Concerts are held in the open area at the 17th and 18th holes. Are you starting to get the picture? This is by far the busiest park in the city when the weather is nice.

If you don't mind waiting and observing all the pedestrians doing pedestrian things, then you'll have a good Saturday afternoon here. Otherwise you're best off coming when the snow is on the ground or when a couple of the holes are underwater.

UPDATE 10/2009: The parking lot has been repaved and there are now teepads on all 18 holes. Teeing off on an even surface makes a big difference; I'm extremely happy that this situation was remedied. I've increased my rating from a 3.0 to a 3.5.